Maplin administration

[rockershovel]

When exactly was this seminal case you refer to?

There is a heap of regulation in place for the trading of securities. I presume you’ve read it all and understand how it relates to the points you make.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncommon_Law

Edited March 24, 2018 by rockershovel

[TheSignalEngineer]

Well, I saw the "50% off" & "Closing down" posters on my local Maplins this afternoon, and thought I'd check this thread out again, to see what updates there might be, as I haven't looked at it for a few days....

 

So much for that idea!! 

That's why I usually give up on threads like this after the first page, and only call in again if they get past page 7 to find out how far the comments have veered from the topic.

[Robin2]

So your experience is not from actually working in the sector and understanding the technical issues.

 

That's a bit like saying you don't understand toothache unless you are a dentist.

 

Let's agree to disagree.

 

...R

Edited March 24, 2018 by Robin2

[Robin2]

Can I suggest this discussion on the rights and wrongs of the financial sector be moved elsewhere to allow this thread to return to its origins of the loss of another company and the fate of its employees.

We only got here because someone (an employee, I suspect) blamed the collapse of Maplin on greedy financiers.

 

And in spite of the position I have taken on greedy financiers I am not convinced they are the cause of Maplin's problem - and I said so back in Reply #76

 

...R

[melmerby]

We only got here because someone (an employee, I suspect) blamed the collapse of Maplin on greedy financiers.

 

And in spite of the position I have taken on greedy financiers I am not convinced they are the cause of Maplin's problem - and I said so back in Reply #76

 

...R

IMHO it just lost it's way in the modern retail environment.

Quite how you justify £30 for a Yuasa battery for an alarm when you can buy the exact same battery for around £10 at Rapid I do not know.

It can't all be blamed on having a shopfront based business.

 

Keith

Edited March 24, 2018 by melmerby

[rockershovel]

IMHO it just lost it's way in the modern retail environment.

Quite how you justify £30 for a Yuasa battery for an alarm when you can buy the exact same battery for around £10 at Rapid I do not know.

It can't all be blamed on having a shopfront based business.

 

Keith

It’s the common problem of the future being not only unknown, but unknowable, because it is shaped by factors which have not yet appeared. Combine it with the equally common problem of political parties reasoning from their conclusions, and this is the result.

 

When the neoliberal, monetarist policies of the 1980s first appeared, there was much talk of the “service economy” replacing the “manufacturing economy”. Quite a lot of people predicted, quite accurately as it turned out, that this simply wouldn’t work, and here we are; but it was an essential corollary to the destruction of manufacturing industry and infrastructure, because no government could possibly stand for election on a platform of “we neither know, nor care how you will support yourselves in this system”.

 

Enter, now, a radical change, that of the internet, widely available and with it, online selling. NOW there is no real need to maintain actual, physical stocks adjacent to your customers. Two things happen; firstly, many shops simply lose their way, lose their business model, their focus and with that, lose their customer base and cannot continue. Secondly, the employment they produce goes with it. The whole “service economy” degrades to the point where it supplies only items so transient and short-distance (personal transport, packages, hot food delivery) that their delivery cannot be subsumed in this fashion, or (lorry driving) the technology to eliminate it does not exist.

 

Enter, now, a further radical change. Google haven’t yet achieved the wholesale elimination of the taxi driver and lorry driver, but the technology is certainly visible. Amazon are experimenting with automated deliveries by drone. What then, for employment in THAT sector?

 

Make no mistake; modern economics rest firmly on the unstated assumption that someone, somewhere will, in some unspecified way, produce the actual wealth which drives things forward. The alternative is to admit that they won’t, and for that reason, the whole ideology is flawed.

 

The ultimate consequences of this particular failure could be seen in the Soviet Union, where the supply side simply ceased to function, actual wealth (in the form of perishable and/or consumable goods) ceased to be replenished and the entire system ground to a halt and disintegrated amid widespread civil unrest. The USSR wasn’t a capitalist economy, but it was brought down by the situation that people could no longer obtain daily necessities because the system had ceased to provide them (although the supply of PROMISES to provide them, continued unabated).

 

We don’t live in a command economy; instead, we live in an economy in which it has become an article of faith that we can continue to derive income by skimming off a percentage of someone else’s activity and assets.

[StevieD71]

Just to clear up some of the confusion about the prices in store which have come up here, and also with customers in the shop.

 

When the company went into administration it effectively became owned by PWC. This meant that all current Maplin offers became null and void, and prices were reset to the RRP. Inevitablty this resulted in some items going up in price, even with the new discounts.

 

Hope this helps.

[Robin2]

I was in Maplin yesterday - mainly for a look-see, but also hoping (in vain) to get some suitable knobs for potentiometers.

 

As far as I could see the "sale" prices are still generally well above online prices.

 

I suspect there will shortly be a few days with serious bargains to empty the stores of stock. Not that I could see anything that I would bother going back for

 

...R

[melmerby]

As has been mentioned here before, the administrators started withh RRP before taking off the discount which means some (many?) items are still overpriced even with what Maplin has sold them for.

e.g. the Maplin basic wireless mouse & keyboard is at £20.99 including (30%?) discount. I bought one last year for £19.99!

 

Something else which must push up Maplin's price is their insistence in recent times for many things to be branded as Maplin items even though they are generic Chinese products.

So a Chinese company makes 100,000 items to sell at £10 each but Maplin want a 1000 of them in Maplin Boxes and with Maplin branding. Are they still £10 each, definitely not.

 

Keith

Edited March 28, 2018 by melmerby

[Junctionmad]

It’s the common problem of the future being not only unknown, but unknowable, because it is shaped by factors which have not yet appeared. Combine it with the equally common problem of political parties reasoning from their conclusions, and this is the result.

When the neoliberal, monetarist policies of the 1980s first appeared, there was much talk of the “service economy” replacing the “manufacturing economy”. Quite a lot of people predicted, quite accurately as it turned out, that this simply wouldn’t work, and here we are; but it was an essential corollary to the destruction of manufacturing industry and infrastructure, because no government could possibly stand for election on a platform of “we neither know, nor care how you will support yourselves in this system”.

Enter, now, a radical change, that of the internet, widely available and with it, online selling. NOW there is no real need to maintain actual, physical stocks adjacent to your customers. Two things happen; firstly, many shops simply lose their way, lose their business model, their focus and with that, lose their customer base and cannot continue. Secondly, the employment they produce goes with it. The whole “service economy” degrades to the point where it supplies only items so transient and short-distance (personal transport, packages, hot food delivery) that their delivery cannot be subsumed in this fashion, or (lorry driving) the technology to eliminate it does not exist.

Enter, now, a further radical change. Google haven’t yet achieved the wholesale elimination of the taxi driver and lorry driver, but the technology is certainly visible. Amazon are experimenting with automated deliveries by drone. What then, for employment in THAT sector?

Make no mistake; modern economics rest firmly on the unstated assumption that someone, somewhere will, in some unspecified way, produce the actual wealth which drives things forward. The alternative is to admit that they won’t, and for that reason, the whole ideology is flawed.

The ultimate consequences of this particular failure could be seen in the Soviet Union, where the supply side simply ceased to function, actual wealth (in the form of perishable and/or consumable goods) ceased to be replenished and the entire system ground to a halt and disintegrated amid widespread civil unrest. The USSR wasn’t a capitalist economy, but it was brought down by the situation that people could no longer obtain daily necessities because the system had ceased to provide them (although the supply of PROMISES to provide them, continued unabated).

We don’t live in a command economy; instead, we live in an economy in which it has become an article of faith that we can continue to derive income by skimming off a percentage of someone else’s activity and assets.

An interesting if rather biased diatribe, but what is has to do with maplin is beyond me. All through history, sectors thrive, plateau and sometime die , be it commercial canals or buggy whip manufacturers , maplin is merely one in a long line of sectors that have been overtaken by events

[Horsetan]

.....When the company went into administration it effectively became owned by PWC. This meant that all current Maplin offers became null and void, and prices were reset to the RRP. Inevitablty this resulted in some items going up in price, even with the new discounts.

 

Hope this helps.

Helps everyone except those hoping for a bargain, anyway!

[hayfield]

Whilst I accept many things can be brought cheaply off the internet, which is only an extension/improvement of mail order that's been running for years. With the exception of eBay which I use for model making. As for other commodities my first port of call is local shops. My only internet purchase this year was for a glass door pivot hinge which I looked for first locally without any luck

 

I am now lucky enough to have a good model railway shop quite close and I do try and support it as much as I can (will be going there later). eBay is for s/h auctions, new items either from local shop or at shows

 

I tend to use the internet in reverse, look up what I want on line then buy locally. As for Mapin not being big into electronics had little use for them, found the shop on the rare occasions I visited uninspiring so bought elsewhere. I have learnt during extending the house that by shopping around savings can be had using local suppliers

[Pandora]

I have been a customer of Maplin since they began from a "back bedroom" and then a single shop in   Rayleigh Essex in 1974, they became a big player in electronics components as the first to offer the retail consumer access by mail order to components such as TTL or CMOS logic long before Maplin became a mainstream high street operation.  The cost of semiconductors such as 74 series  TTL plummeted from £5 a piece to around 20pence, in contrast Uni Grads starting salaries were £3000 pa,   making digital electronics feasible for consumer retailing,  their  extensive paper catalogue of the 1970s was a feast and a treasure chest for students of electronics, and their rapid order to shipping was first class experience,  does anyone recall the Maplin ETI 4600 synthesizer?

 

Maplin had been operating on slim margins for several years , changing owners, and too close to breaking their banking covenants  for comfort,  the post Brexit exchange rate changes is said to have wiped out their slim sales margins towards  losses.

 

I have not noticed any  price rises before / after  liquidation sales ,  I purchased an Arduino Mega ADK  computer for under £24 earlier this week,  typically they had been  £35.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Pandora

[StevieD71]

Our Manager used one one the redundant poster boards to prepare a "helpful" FAQ for customers:

[melmerby]

One

 

Our Manager used one one the redundant poster boards to prepare a "helpful" FAQ for customers:

Maplin FAQ.jpg

One of those is wrong.

 

The Birmingham store has a notice saying that faulty goods will be refunded/exchanged (although the manager will need to authorise it)

Changing your mind though isn't a reason for a refund. (although when it was Maplin's and not the administrator's shop it was.)

 

Keith

[StevieD71]

We will exchange faulty items but there are NO refunds. That is the instruction we were given. If you need a refund you have to take it up with PWC. We have cards with their number.

[melmerby]

We will exchange faulty items but there are NO refunds. That is the instruction we were given. If you need a refund you have to take it up with PWC. We have cards with their number.

Does that meet the legal requirements?

If you buy an item and it is faulty they must give you a refund if there are no replacements. That surely applies to the shop where you bought the item and not some bods in an office somewhere.

 

Keith

[Robin2]

some bods in an office somewhere.

 

Those bods are now the guys with the personal legal responsibility (and not PWC as a company AFAIK)

 

...R

[melmerby]

Somebody had cleared out (all but one) "Lucky bags" from the Birmingham store.

 

There were quite a few left last week and I had a good sort through them but didn't see much of use amongst them. There were some LCD/LED displays but included several of those glass types where they make contact with a membrane plus bags of odd size & shape pots.

The resistor/capacitor bags weren't particularly good values, so I wish whoever bought them good luck.

 

I did get a small breadboard with 70% off and a 12v 60W power supply 50% off, so competive (just about!)

 

The big ticket items with typically 20% off don't seem to be moving at all.

 

Keith

[melmerby]

Those bods are now the guys with the personal legal responsibility (and not PWC as a company AFAIK)

 

...R

Their names are at the top of the legal documents on display in store.

 

Keith

[Bernard Lamb]

Does that meet the legal requirements?

If you buy an item and it is faulty they must give you a refund if there are no replacements. That surely applies to the shop where you bought the item and not some bods in an office somewhere.

 

Keith

 

Not when a company is in administration.

The man from PWC is in sole charge and is responsible for every penny of cash.

Nothing is spent without his approval. He will be fully aware of our legal rights but will do all in his power to hinder any payment.

 

It's a funny old world.

At one time I technically was employed by a company called Interlake based in the USA.

GKN took them over with a hostile bid as they wanted one particular division of the company.

They paid a great deal of money to do so and I received my small share of it.

Yesterday the circle moves on with the same thing happening to GKN, involving the same part of that company.

The bit hat I was working for was sold off and then went into administration. Run of course by PWC.

Going back a long while, Mr Waterhouse was originally from Hemel Hempstead. It's a small world. 

Bernard

[Junctionmad]

Whilst I accept many things can be brought cheaply off the internet, which is only an extension/improvement of mail order that's been running for years. With the exception of eBay which I use for model making. As for other commodities my first port of call is local shops. My only internet purchase this year was for a glass door pivot hinge which I looked for first locally without any luck

 

I am now lucky enough to have a good model railway shop quite close and I do try and support it as much as I can (will be going there later). eBay is for s/h auctions, new items either from local shop or at shows

 

I tend to use the internet in reverse, look up what I want on line then buy locally. As for Mapin not being big into electronics had little use for them, found the shop on the rare occasions I visited uninspiring so bought elsewhere. I have learnt during extending the house that by shopping around savings can be had using local suppliers

[Junctionmad]

I would contend you are increasingly in the minority ,John .the figures show that in thd market share of internet stores is growing,often at the detriment of bricks and mortar shops. I by 90 % of all railway modelling materials over the internet and I appreciate the convienence of shopping from my home , when I can buy 100 LEDs from China for $1.50 postage included , then u can see why maplin was doomed

[Robin2]

when I can buy 100 LEDs from China for $1.50 postage included , then u can see why maplin was doomed

The other side of that is the issue of whether you want to support jobs in the UK.

 

If everyone in the UK decided to buy all his stuff from China (or any other country) most business in the UK would have to close. It is very short sighted to think that you are doing yourself a favour by buying at the cheapest price. It was the same thought process that led to the demise of the UK coal and steel industries and the mom-n-pop local stores that lost out to supermarkets.

 

By the way I am not speaking in defence of Maplin. You don't have to go to China or even to Ebay to find UK suppliers that are more competitive than Maplin. Even RS Components was cheaper for lots of things.

 

...R

[meil]

The other side of that is the issue of whether you want to support jobs in the UK.

 

If everyone in the UK decided to buy all his stuff from China (or any other country) most business in the UK would have to close. It is very short sighted to think that you are doing yourself a favour by buying at the cheapest price. It was the same thought process that led to the demise of the UK coal and steel industries and the mom-n-pop local stores that lost out to supermarkets.

 

By the way I am not speaking in defence of Maplin. You don't have to go to China or even to Ebay to find UK suppliers that are more competitive than Maplin. Even RS Components was cheaper for lots of things.

 

...R

And where exactly do R S Components get their components from? oh wait - CHINA.